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It's HUGE (how many other piano concerti do you know that require a chorus?), long, not very accessible (how often do you get a theme from the Busoni concerto stuck in your head?), and makes technical demands that only a handful of pianists can manage.

The Busoni has always had a reputation for excessive difficulty, but that seems overrated to me. Perhaps it is more a matter of endurance, certainly there isn't anything in particular which puts a Brahms Bb, Rachmaninov 3, or Bartok 2 to shame.

I have loved this music since a lad of 15, and IMO no one but John Ogdon has ever really done this music justice- and I have 8 recordings including the live Mewton-Wood.

Busoni said he could account for EVERY note of that concerto, and indeed there is not a wasted moment, it is as tightly constructed as anything by Mahler, Strauss or Elgar. The problem -if it be so- is that Busoni's themes are not, by themselves, very brief. Busoni needs time (and the opening salvo is as short as it could be) to develop, but we don't see that as a problem with Mahler or Elgar, do we?

Well maybe we do, and perhaps Busoni is setting himself up for comparison with that taught conversation taking place in Beethoven's Bb concerto.

I'm not sure where I read it, but Brother Ferrucio sure had disparaging words to say about two of my favorite musicians, Beethoven and Schubert. Shame. I listen to Busoni as much as I can, but I must admit, his music doesn't stick in my head like Chopin or Tchaikovsky's does. That piano concerto is a long one, though. Doesn't it clock in at something like 70 minutes? Makes you wonder if he wrote for the sake of writing and not for enriching the world with new fortuitous melodies. Just saying.

I think that the 70 minutes length can account for some of its unpopularity... And the technical requirements... I mean it's a insanely big work in every account. Not a bad work itself, not at all... But still, one should take into account what's possible, what's difficult and what's impossible!

didyougethathing
500 Post Club Member
Registered: 10/08/11
Posts: 545
Loc: New York

Originally Posted By: Kuanpiano

Or because people can't get past the first 5 minutes.

Heh, that sounds about right for me. The orchestral prelude is beautiful and moving, and the piano entrance is great, but after that I've yet to find anything that I really enjoy. However, I like to give it a listen every so often.

nice piece, difficult? nonsense, long? nonsense, hard to listen to? nonsense, but, I mean BUT: a chorus, male, bad text, and everyone wants to hear the symphony, concertos are generally supposed to be like the first course, not like the main course.

nice piece, difficult? nonsense, long? nonsense, hard to listen to? nonsense, but, I mean BUT: a chorus, male, bad text, and everyone wants to hear the symphony, concertos are generally supposed to be like the first course, not like the main course.

Well, my friend, hopefully no one is asking you to learn it, you are a busy concert pianist, and very likely doing quite well without the piece in your repertoire!